API Documentation News

These are the news items I've curated in my monitoring of the API space that have some relevance to the API definition conversation and I wanted to include in my research. I'm using all of these links to better understand how the space is testing their APIs, going beyond just monitoring and understand the details of each request and response.

Darrel Miller has a thought provoking post on OpenAPI not being what he thought, shining a light on a very important dimension of what OpenAPI does, and doesn’t do in the API space. In my experience, OpenAPI is rarely what people think, and I want to revisit once slice of Darrel’s story, in regards to folks generally thinking OpenAPI (Swagger) as being all about API documentation. In 2017, the majority of folks I talk to think OpenAPI is about documenting your APIs–something that always makes me sad, but I get it, and is something I regularly work to combat this notion.

First, and foremost, OpenAPI is a bridge to understanding and being able to communicate around using HTTP as a transport, and our greatest hope for helping developers learn their HTTPs and 123s. I meet developers on a regular basis who are building web APIs, yet do not have a firm grasp on what HTTP is. Hell, I’ve had a career dedicated to web APIs for the last seven years, and I’m still developing my grasp on what it is, learning new things from folks like Erik Wilde (@dret), Darrel Miller (@darrel_miller), and Mike Amundsen (@mamund) on a regular basis. In the API game, you should always be learning, and the web is the center of your existence at the moment as a software engineer, and should be the focus of what you are learning about to push forward your knowledge.

Darrel has a great line in his post where he has “a higher chance of convincing developers to stop drinking Mountain Dew than to pry a documentation generator from the hands of a dev with a deadline.” Meaning, most developers don’t have the time or interest to learn about what OpenAPIs, or can do for them in their busy world, they just want the help delivering documentation–a very visual representation of the work they’ve done, and is something they can demonstrate to their boss, partners, and customers. Most developers aren’t spending the time trying to know and understand everything API, thinking deeply on the subject like Darrel and I are doing. Most don’t even have time to read our blog posts. A sad fact of doing business in the tech space, but is something us in charge of API standards and tooling, or even selling API services should be aware of.

You see an essence of this with API code generators, and API testing from OpenAPI. Although in much lesser quantities than API documentation enjoys. Developers just want the assist, they really don’t care whether it is the right way of doing things, or the wrong way, and how it fits into the bigger picture. API developers just want to get their work done, and move on. It is up to us analysts, standards shepherds, and API service providers to help educate, illuminate, and incentivize developers to get over their limiting views on what OpenAPI is and/or develop the next killer tooling that helps make their lives insanely easier like Swagger UI did for API documentation. We need to learn from the impact this tooling has made, and make sure the other lifecycle solutions we are delivering speak in similar tones.

If you are reading this piece, and are still in the camp of folks who still see OpenAPI as Swagger UI, don’t feel bad, it is a common misconception, and one that was exacerbated by the move from Swagger to OpenAPI. My recommendation is that you begin to look at OpenAPI independent of any tooling it enables. Think of it as a checklist for your HTTP learning, sharing, and communication across your API development team. It shouldn’t be just about delivering documentation, code, tests, or anything else. OpenAPI is about making sure you have the HTTP details of your API delivered in a consistent way, across not just a single APIs, but all the APIs you are delivering. OpenAPI is the bridge to where you are now with your API operations, to where you should be when it comes to the definition, design, deployment, management, and delivering sustainable contracts around the digital assets you are serving up internally, with partners, and 3rd party developers. It may see like extra work to think about it this way, but it is something that will save you time and money down the road.

I was brainstorming with Shelby Switzer (@switzerly) yesterday around potential projects for upcoming events we are attending, looking for interesting ideas we can push forward, and one of the ideas we settled in on, was automatically generating OpenAPIs from any open data set. We aren’t just looking for some code to do this, we are looking for a forkable, reusable way of doing this that anyone could potentially put to work making open data more accessible. It’s an interesting idea that I think could have legs, and compliment some of the existing projects I’m tackling, and would help folks make their open data more usable.

To develop a proof of concept I took one of my existing projects for publishing an API integration page within the developer portal of API providers, and replaced the hand crafted OpenAPI with a dynamic one. The project is driven from a single YAML data file, which I manage and publish using Google Sheets, and already had a static API and OpenAPI documentation, making it a perfect proof of concept. As I said, the OpenAPI is currently static YAML, so I got to work making it dynamically driven from the YAML data store. The integrations.yaml data store has eight fields, which I hd published as four separate API paths, depending on which category each entry is in. I was able to assemble the OpenAPI using a handful of variables already in the config.yaml for the project, but the rest I was able to generate by mounting the integrations.yaml, dynamically identifying the fields and the field types, and then generating the API paths, and schema definitions needed in the OpenAPI.

It’s totally hacky at the moment, and just a proof of concept, but it works. I’m using the dynamically generated OpenAPI to drive the Swagger UI documentation on the project. I’m not sure why I hadn’t thought of this before, but this is why I spend time hanging with smart folks like Shelby, who ask good questions, and are curious about pushing forward concepts like this. Liquid, the language used by Jekyll to deliver HTML in Github driven project like this is very limiting, providing some serious constraints when it comes to delivering tools like this. As I get stronger in my knowledge of it, and push the boundaries of what it can do, I’m able to do some pretty interesting things on top of YAML and JSON data stored on Github, within Jekyll sites like this. It can be pretty hacky, and would make many programmers cringe, but I like it.

While the idea needs a lot more work, it provides an interesting seed for how OpenAPI can be generated from a single (or multiple) open data file in CSV, JSON, or YAML–which Jekyll speaks natively. The possibilities to commit open data files into a Github repo and have OpenAPI, schema, documentation, and even UI elements automatically generated is pretty huge. This approach to making open data accessible holds a significant amount of potential when it comes to making the open data more discoverable, accessible, forkable, and reusable–which all open data should be by default. I will keep pushing the idea forward, and see where Shelby takes it, and report back here when I have anything more to share.

My friend and collaborator James Higginbotham(@launchany) has launched a new minimum viable documentation (MVD) template for APIs, providing API provides with everything they need out of the gate when it comes to a presence for their API. The MVD solution provides you with a place for your getting started, workflows, code samples, reference material, with OpenAPI as the heartbeat–providing you with everything you need when it comes to API documentation. It all is an open source package available on Github, allowing any API provider to fork and quickly change the content and look and feel to match your needs. Which in my opinion, is the way ALL API documentation solutions should be. None of us should be re-inventing the wheel when it comes to our API portals, there are too many good examples out their to follow.

I know that Jekyll is intimidating for many folks. I’m currently dealing with this on several fronts, but trust me when I say that Jekyll will become one of the most important tools in your API toolbox. It takes a bit to learn the structure of Jekyll, and get over some of the quirks of learning to program using Liquid, but once you do, it will open up a whole new world for you. It is much more than just a static content management system (CMS). For me, it’s most significant strength has become as a data management system (DMS)??, with OpenAPI as the heart. I use Jekyll (and Github) for managing all my OpenAPI definitions, JSON and YAML files, and increasingly publishing my data sets in this way instead of relying on server-side technology. If you are looking for an new solution when it comes to your API portal, I recommend taking a look at what James is up to.

I’m spending a significant amount of time learning about machine learning APIs lately. Some of what I’m reading is easy to follow, while most of it is not. A good deal of what I’m reading is technically complex, and more on the documentation side of the conversation. Other stuff I come across is difficult to read, not because it is technical, but because it is more algorithmic marketing magic, and doesn’t really get at what is really going on (or not) under the hood.

If you are in the business of writing marketing copy, documentation, or even the API design itself, please work extra hard to keep things simple and in plain language. I read so much hype, jargon, fluff, and meaningless content about artificial intelligence and machine learning each day, I take pleasure anytime I find simple, concise, and information descriptions of what ML APIs do. In an exploding world of machine learning hype your products will stand out if they are straight up, and avoid the BS, which will pretty quickly turn off the savvy folks to whatever you are peddling.

Really, this advice applies to any API, not just machine learning. It’s just the quantity of hype we are seeing around AI and ML in 2017 is reaching some pretty extreme levels. Following the hype is easy. Writing fluffy content doesn’t take any skills. Writing simple, concise, plain language names, descriptions, and other meta data for artificial intelligence and machine learning APIs takes time, and a significant amount of contemplation regarding the message you want to be sending. The ML APIs I come across that get right to the point, are always the ones that stick around in my mind, and find a place within my research and storytelling.

We are going to continue to see an explosion in the number of algorithmic APIs, delivering across the artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, cognitive, and other magical realms. The APIs that deliver real business value will survive. The ones that have simple intuitive titles, and concise yet informative description that avoid hype and buzz will be the ones that get shared, reused, and ultimately float to the top of the pile and sticking around. I’m spending upwards of 5-10 hours a week looking through AI and ML API descriptions, and when I come across something that is clearly bullshit I don’t hesitate to flag, and push it back to the back warehouses of my research, keeping my time focused on the APIs which I can easily articulate what they do, and will also make sense to my readers.

I gave the research paper a read through and it is some lofty academic stuff, but it touches on a number of the things I write about on API Evangelist when it comes to the cognitive load associated with understanding what an API does. I found the resulting conversation from the research to be the most interesting part, discussing how we can improve the flow with our API documentation and reduce interruption time, or as I often call it, “friction”. There are a wealth of ideas in there for helping us think more critically about our API documentation, which has been repeatedly identified as the number one problem area for our developers.

If you are in the business of creating any new API documentation startup your team should be digesting Mr. Watson’s work. This is the first official academic work I’ve seen on the subject of API documentation and is something I’ll be revisiting regularly, attempting to distil down any words of wisdom for my readers. I feel like this work is a sign of larger movements towards the API space beginning to get more coherent in how we approach our API operations. I’m hoping it is something that will lay the groundwork for some more useful API documentation services and tooling.

This post is a straight up copy and paste from an email newsletter I get from Peter Gruenbaum of SDK Bridge. I am a big supporter of API service providers like SDK Bridge, who has been doing API documentation the entire time I’ve been the API Evangelist. Peter isn’t looking to be the next big startup, he’s just operating a successful API service that addresses one of the biggest problems API providers face–documentation. Some of my readers might not be aware these types of services exist, which is why I’m copy / pasting this, and helping spread the good word.

People often ask me what the best tool for API documentation is. There is no simple answer to this question. It depends a lot on what your API looks like, who your developers are, and what kind of support you can give your content system. This is a quick newsletter to pass on a review of free and open source API documentation tools that you might consider using.

Also, there’s a 60% off sale on our Udemy courses for you newsletter readers for the first 10 students to sign up:

Free and Open Source API Documentation Tools
Diána Lakatos has written an excellent description of several free and open source tools that can read the standard API definition formats OpenAPI, RAML, and API Blueprint. In addition, she covers API documentation tools that require non-standard formats, and general purpose open source documentation tools that can be used for API documentation that you may want to consider.

She provides screenshots and links to demos for each of these tools. If you want a quick overview of the tools, scroll to the bottom to read the summary table.
You can find the article here: Free and Open Source API Documentation Tools.

ReDoc is the responsive, three-panel, OpenAPI specification driven documentation for your API that you were looking for. Swagger UI is still reigning king when it comes to API documentation generated using the OpenAPI Spec, but ReDoc provides a simple, attractive, and clean alternative to documentation.

ReDoc is deployable to any web page with just two tags--with the resulting documentation looking attractive on both web and mobile devices. Now you can have it all, your API documentation looking good, interactive, and driven by a machine-readable definition that will help you keep everything up to date.

ReDoc leverages a custom HTML tag, and provides you with a handful of attributes for defining, and customizing their documentation, including specurl, scroll-y-offset, suppress-warnings, lazy-rendering, hid-hostname, and expand-responses--providing some quick ways to get exactly what you need, on any web page.

There is a handful of APIs who have put ReDocs to use as API documentation for their platform:

There also provide a live demo of ReDoc, allowing you to kick the tires some more before you deploy, and make sure it does what you will need it to before you fork.

ReDoc provides a simple, OpenAPI spec compliant way of delivering attractive, interactive, responsive and up to date documentation that can be deployed anywhere, including integration into your existing continuous integration, and API lifecycle. ReDoc reflects a new generation of very modular, plug and play API tooling that can be put to use immediately as part of an OpenAPI Spec-driven web, mobile, and device application development cycle(s).

I am working to update my OpenAPI definitions for AWS, Google, and Microsoft using some other OpenAPIs I've discovered on Github. When a new OpenAPI has entirely new paths available, I just insert them, but when it has an existing path I have to think more critically about what is next. Sometimes I dismiss the metadata about the API path as incomplete or lower quality than the one I have already. Other times the content is actually more superior than mine, and I incorporate it into my work. Now I'm also finding that in some cases I want to keep my representation, as well as the one I discovered, side by side--both having value.

This is one reason I'm not 100% sold on the fact that just API providers should be crafting their own OpenAPis--sure, the API space would be waaaaaay better if ALL API providers had machine readable OpenAPIs for all their services, but I would want it to end here. You see, API providers are good (sometimes) at defining what their API does, but they often suck at telling you what is possible--which is why they are doing APIs. I have a lot of people who push back on me creating OpenAPIs for popular APIs, telling me that API providers should be the ones doing the hard work, otherwise it doesn't matter. I'm just not sold that this is the case, and there is an opportunity for evolving the definition of an API by external entities using OpenAPI.

To help me explore this idea, and push the boundaries of how I use OpenAPI in my API storytelling, I wanted to frame this in the context of the Amazon EC2 API, which allows me to deploy a single unit of compute into the cloud using an API, a pretty fundamental component of our digital worlds. To make any call against the Amazon EC2 I send all my calls to a single base URL:

ec2.amazonaws.com

With this API call I pass in the "action" I'd like to be taken:

?Action=RunInstances

Along with this base action parameter, I pass in a handful of other parameters to further define things:

Amazon has never been known for superior API design, but it gets the job done. With this single API call I can launch a server in the clouds. When I was first able to do this with APIs, is when the light really went on in my head regarding the potential of APIs. However, back to my story on expressing what an API does, as well as what is possible using OpenAPI. AWS has done an OK job at expressing what Amazon EC2 API does, however they suck at expressing what is possible. This is where API consumers like me step up with OpenAPI and provide some alternative representations of what is possible with the highly valuable API.

When I define the Amazon EC2 API using the OpenAPI specification I use the following:

The AWS API design pattern doesn't lend itself to reuse when it comes to documentation and storytelling, but I'm always looking for an opportunity to push the boundaries, and I'm able to better outline all available actions, as individual API paths by appending the action parameter to the path:

Now I'm able to describe all 228 actions you can take with the single Amazon EC2 API path as separate paths in any OpenAPI generated API documentation and tooling. I can give them unique summaries, descriptions, and operationId. OpenAPI allows me to describe what is possible with an API, going well beyond what the API provider was able to define. I've been using this approach to better quantify the surface area of APIs like Amazon, Flickr, and others who use this pattern for a while now, but as I was looking to update my work, I wanted to take this concept even further.

While appending query parameters to the path definition has allowed me to expand how I describe the surface area of an API using OpenAPI, I'd rather keep these parameters defined properly using the OpenAPI specification, and define an alternative way to make the path unique. To do this, I am exploring the usage of #bookmarks, to help make duplicate API paths more unqiue in the eyes of the schema validators, but invisible to the server side of things--something like this:

I am still drawing in the lines of what the API provider has given me, but I'm now augmenting with a better summary and description of what is possible using OpenAPI, which can now be reflected in documentation and other tooling that is OpenAPI compliant. I can even prepopulate the default values, or available options using enum settings, tailoring to my team, company, or other specific needs. Taking an existing API definition beyond its provider interpretation of what it does, and getting to work on being more creative around what is possible.

Let me know how incoherent this is. I can't tell sometimes. Maybe I need more examples of this in action. I feel like it might be a big piece of the puzzle that has been missing for me regarding how we tell stories about what is possible with APIs. When it comes to API definitions, documentation, and discovery I feel like we are chained to a provider's definition of what is possible, when in reality this shouldn't be what drives the conversation. There should be definitions, documentation, and discovery documents created by API providers that help articulate what an API does, but more importantly, there should be a wealth of definitions, documentation, and discovery documents created by API consumers that help articulate what is possible.

I've been an advocate for OpenAPI since it's release, writing hundreds of stories about what is possible. I do not support OpenAPI because I think it is the perfect solution, I support it because I think it is the scaffolding for a bridge that will get us closer to a suitable solution for the world we have. I'm always studying how people see OpenAPI, both positive and negative, in hopes of better crafting examples of it being used, and stories about what is possible with the specification.

When you ask people what OpenAPI is for, the most common answer is documentation. The second most common answer is for generating code and SDKs. People often associate documentation and code generation with OpenAPI because these were the first two tools that were developed on top of the API specification. I do not see much pushback from the folks who don't like OpenAPI when it comes to documentation, but when it comes to generating code, I regularly see folks criticizing the concept of generating code using OpenAPI definitions.

When I think about OpenAPI I think about a life cycle full of tools and services that can be delivered, with documentation and code generation being just two of them. I feel it is shortsighted to dismiss OpenAPI because it falls short in any single stop along the API lifecycle as I feel the most important role for OpenAPI is when it comes to API literacy--helping us craft, share, and teach API best practices.

OpenAPI, API Blueprint, and other API definition formats are the best way we currently have to define, share, and articulate APIs in a single document. Sure, a well-designed hypermedia API allows you to navigate, explore, and understand the surface area of an API, but how do you summarize that in a shareableÂ and collaborative document that can be also used for documentation, monitoring, testing, and other stops along the API life cycle.Â

I wish everybody could read the latest API design book and absorb the latest concepts for building the best API possible. Some folks learn this way, but in my experience, a significant segment of the community learn from seeing examples of API best practices in action. API definition formats allow us to describe the moving parts of an API request and response, which then provides an example that other API developers can follow when crafting their own APIs. I find that many people simply follow the API examples they are familiarÂ with, and OpenAPI allows us to easily craft and shares these examples for them to follow.

If we are going to do APIs at the scale we need to helpÂ folks craft RESTful web APIs, as well as hypermedia, GraphQL, and gRPC APIs. We need a way to define our APIs, and articulate this definition to our consumers, as well as to other API providers. This helps me remember to not get hung up on any single use of OpenAPI, and other API specification formats, because first and foremost, these formats help us with API literacy, which has wider implications than any single API implementation, or stops along the API life cycle.

I have had a number of requests from folks lately to write more about Github, and how they can use the social coding platform as part of their API operations. As I work with more companies outside of the startup echo chamber on their API strategies I am encountering more groups that aren't Github fluent and could use some help getting started. It has also been a while since I've thought deeply about how API providers should be using Github so it will allow me to craft some fresh content on the subject.

Github As Your Technical Social NetworkThink of Github as a more technical version of Facebook, but instead of the social interactions being centered around wall posts, news links, photos, and videos, it is focused on engagement with repositories. A repository is basically a file folder that you can make public or private, and put anything you want into it. While code is the most common thing put into Github repositories, they often contain data file, presentations, and other content, providing a beneficial way to manage many aspects of API operations.

The Github BasicsWhen putting Github to use as part of your API operations, start small. Get your profile setup, define your organization, and begin using it to manage documentation or other simple areas of your operations--until you get the hang of it. Set aside any pre-conceived notions about Github being about code, and focus on the handful of services it offers to enable your API operations.

Users - Just like other online services, Github has the notion of a user, where you provide a photo, description, and other relevant details about yourself. Avoid making a user accounts for your API, making sure you show the humans involved in API operations. It does make sense to have a testing, or other generic platform Github users accounts, but make sure your API team each have their own user profile, providing a snapshot of everyone involved.

Organizations - You can use Github organizations to group your API operations under a single umbrella. Each organization has a name, logo, and description, and then you can add specific users as collaborators, and build your team under a single organization. Start with a single repository for your entire API operations, then you can consider the additional organization to further organize your efforts such as partner programs, or other aspects of internal API operations.

Repositories - A repository is just a folder. You can create a repository, and replicate (check out) a repository using the Github desktop client, and manage its content locally, and commit changes back to Github whenever you are ready. Repositories are designed for collaborative, version controlled engagements, allowing for many people to work together, while still providing centralized governance and control by the designated gatekeeper for whatever project being managed via a repository--the most common usage is for managing open source software.

Topics - Recently Github added the ability to label your repositories using what they call topics. Topics are used as part of Github discovery, allowing users to search using common topics, as well as searching for users, organizations, and repositories by keyword. Github Topics is providing another way for developers to find interesting APIs using search, browsing, and Github trends.

Gists - A GitHub service for managing code snippets that allow them to be embedded in other websites, documentation -- great for use in blog posts, and communication around API operations.

Pages - Use Github Pages for your project websites. It is the quickest way to stand up a web page to host API documentation, code samples, or the entire portal for your API effort.

API - Everything on the Github platform is available through the Github API. Making all aspects of your API operations available via an API, which is the way it should be.

Managing API Operations With GithubThere are a handful of ways I encourage API providers to consider using Github as part of their operations. I prefer to use Github for all aspects of API operations, but not every organization is ready for that--I encourage you to focus in these areas when you are just getting going:

Documentation - Whether as part of the entire portal or just as a single repository, it is common for API providers to publish API documentation to Github. Using solutions like ReDoc, it is easy to make your API documentation look good, while also easily keeping them up to date.

Code Samples w/ Gists - It is easy to manage all samples for an API using Github Gists, allowing them to be embedded in the documentation, and other communication and storytelling conducted as part of platform operations.

Software Development Kits (SDK) Repositories - If you are providing complete SDKs for API integrations in a variety of languages you should be using Github to manage their existence, allowing API consumers to fork and integrate as they need, while also staying in tune with changes.

OpenAPI Management - Publish your APIs.json or OpenAPI definition to Github, allowing the YAML or JSON to be versioned, and managed in a collaborate environment where API consumers can fork and integrate into their own operations.

Issues - Use Github issues for managing the conversation around integration and operational issues.

Road Map - Also use Github Issues to help aggregate, collaborate, and evolve the road map for API operations, encouraging consumers to be involved.

Change Log - When anything on the roadmap is achieved flag it for inclusion in the change log, providing a list of changes to the platform that API consumers can use as a reference.

Github is essential to API operations. There is no requirement for Github users to possess developer skills. Many types of users put Github to use in managing the technical aspects of projects to take advantage of the network effect, as well as the version control and collaboration introduced by the social platform. It's common for non-technical folks to be intimidated by Github, ad developers often encourage this, but in reality, Github is as easy to use as any other social network--it just takes some time to get used to and familiar it.

If you have questions about how to use Github, feel free to reach out. I'm happy to focus on specific uses of Github for API operations in more detail. I have numerous examples of how it can be used, I just need to know where I should be focusing next. Remember, there are no stupid questions. I am an advocate for everyone taking advantage of Github and I fully understand that it can be difficult to understand how it works when you are just getting going.

I read a lot of content about APIs. I read a lot of redundant and fluffy marketing and technical jargon, trying to understand exactly what an API does, or doesn't do. Before I criticize, I have to admit that crafting really good API marketing and documentation is hard. Only about 5% of what I read is good, a significant portion is just incomplete and lazily done by someone who doesn't care--the rest is actually incorrect, misleading, and straight up hype.

There are three layers to the API hype onion in my experience:

Marketing - The fluff on the main page written by the marketing team who usually doesn't care about the API and has taken the time to get to know what it does.

Documentation - The technical fluff in the API portal usually written by someone technical, and not quite possessing the skills to talk to humans, let alone coherently explain something to another human being.

API - The actual naming, ordering, parameters, and overall request and response structure for an API that actually accomplishes something--it may not always accomplish exactly what I'm looking for, but at least it is.

While I still read marketing and documentation, because they provide me with clues about the intent behind API operations, when I actually want the honest take of what an API does, I always go straight to the API and get to work making API calls. This is a problem that is only increasing as we enter into the artificial intelligence and machine learning hype phase.

After you finish writing the marketing, documentation, and have your API up and running--step back, and re-read everything, and think about the synchronicity between these three areas of your operations. It takes a lot of practice and hard work to do right, but I think if you just take a moment, step back, and think about these layers to how you articulate what your APIs does--you will immediately find yourself in a better position to communicate what it is you are trying to accomplish to a much wider audience.

I am working on a project using the Youtube API, and came across their inline OAut 2.0 scopes, allowing you to explore what the API does as you are browsing the API docs. I am a huge fan of what interactive documentation like Swagger UI, and Apiary brought to the table, but I'm an even bigger fan of the creative ways people are evolving upon the concept, making learning about APIs a hands-on, interactive experience wherever possible.

To kick off my education of the YouTube API I started playing with the search endpoint for the Youtube Data API. As I was playing with I noticed the had an API explorer allowing me to call the search method and see the live data.

Once I clicked on the "Authorize requests using OAuth 2.0" slider I got a popup that gave me options for selecting OAuth 2.0s copes, that would be applied by the API explorer when I make API calls.

The inline OAuth is simple, intuitive, and what I needed to define my API consumption, in line within the Youtube API documentation. I didn't have to write any code or jump through a bunch of classic OAuth hoops. It gves me what I need for OAuth, right in the documentation--simple OAuth is something you don't see very often.

I'm a supporter of more API documentation being an attractive static HTML layout like this, with little interactive modules embedded throughout the API docs. I'm also interested in seeing more web literacy being thrown in at this layer as well, pulling common web concepts and specification details, and providing popups, tooltips, and other inline API design learning opportunities.

I'm adding YouTube's approach to OAuth to my list of approaches to a modular approach to delivering interactive API documentation, for use in future storytelling.

I had an exchange with Abhinav Asthana (@a85), the Co-founder and CEO of Postman on Twitter today. He was tweeting about API documentation, and I chimed in with my support, about how we need to keep evolving our approach to delivering API documentation so that they speak to a diverse audience.

An API description created by experts is probably not the right way for building docs meant for beginners.

While I think we have come along ways with the introduction of Swagger UI, making learning about APIs much more interactive, and hands on, I think its time to look at how we can further refine how we deploy API documentation for our users.

There is a lot going on with an API sometimes, and listing out all your endpoints, parameters, example requests, responses, and other elements can be overwhelming for new users who are just looking to learn the basics of an API, or possibly just get at s single resource, completing a specific action.

Swagger UI, and similar API definition driven documentation like Lucybot API Console, do well in providing a comprehensive set of documentation for a potentially wide variety of API docs, but we need to keep scratching. I'm not exactly sure what the answer here is, but I'd love to see much more simpler, embeddable, API documentation emerge. Solutions that allow API providers to display a small set of precise APIs, or possibly come up with some sort of slick user interface (UI), that delivers a simpler, more meaningful user experience (UX) that speaks to what a specific group of users is needing.

This is not a well-formed idea of mine, but is something I want to get out early. I'm seeing an increase in the number of new API documentation resources lately, and hopefully I can influence at least one or two of their road maps with my ideas. This is one reason I've broke out my API documentation research out of my API management research. I have numerous ideas for new types of smaller, more bite-size API docs, as well as more embeddable, and visual API docs as well--having a research project setup gives me a single repo to think about, and publish these ideas.

This approach to delivering documentation is a far more hands-on approach than earlier, more static API documentation. This documentation will evolve along with the project, when I require API keys to work with the API, saving valuable compute, storage, and bandwidth resources. All I have to do is keep the OpenAPI Spec up to date, and the SwaggerUI does the rest.

It is important to have up to date API documentation, helping explain what the API does, but it is even more important to have the machine readable OpenAPI spec, because it drives so many aspects of the API operations, something which acts as the contract for what is expected of the clinical trials API.

I'm seeing a resurgence in my embeddable API research lately, based upon signals I'm seeing across the space, and conversations I'm having with folks. The interesting part for me is that this wave isn't about API providers like Twitter and Faceobok using JavaScript to create buttons, badges, and widgets. This latest round is about API service providers making their services more accessible to both API providers, and API consumers, using embeddable tooling, and most importantly, API definitions.

API driven embeddable tools comes in many shapes and sizes, but is something I work hard to understand, and track on in the space. I have several new embeddable stories to talk about this week, but today's is from my friends over at APIMATIC, as well as Apiary. The two service providers now offer the ability to embed your APIMATIC driven SDKs, into your Apiary driven API documentation. All you do, is plug in the URL of your Apiary portal page for your API, into your APIMATC account, and you are returned embeddable markdown you can paste into your Apiary API documentation--Apiary addresses your API design, documentation, testing and virtualization needs, and APIMATIC comes is with the API SDK assist.

I like API service providers working together like this, it is something that makes API provider's and API consumer's lives easier. This approach to API service interoperability is what it will take to weave together the patchwork of API services that will be needed across the API life cycle. As more API service providers emerge to fill gaps in the life cycle, the ability to stitch these stops will grow more critical, something embeddability will contribute to. Depending on a single provider in 2016, is just not a reality, and I need the services that I depend on to work together.

As I will work to showcase in future stories, embedability comes in many shapes and sizes. I'm hoping we are on the cusp of a new wave of API driven embeddability, one that is exponentially more fruitful, and easier to implement for each individual API provider. An approach to using JavaScript and image driven embeddability, that uses APIs like previous waves, but this one is more designed for API providers, API consumers, as well as for end-users, like historical approaches to embed like Twitter tweet buttons, and Facebook share and login buttons were.

I have forked, and started playing with the LucyBot API Console more--I encourage you to do the same. There are a number of features I'd like to see in there, like more embeddability, and templability of the UI, as well as some APIs.json support, and D3.js visualization integration--so I wil be getting more knowledgeable of the code base, and in tune with the road map. I know the LucyBot team is open sourcing the code to encourage contributions, and are looking for investment in dev and business resources to move the project forward--so get involved!

I was just talking API documentation with Brent Baker (@norcaljhawk), and Jordan Lampe (@JsLampe) from Dwolla. As we were going through their API documentation, they mentioned how they were using Slate for the version 1.0 of their API documentation, but for this round they took what they felt were just the best parts of Slate, and were looking to craft a new experience.

Interestingly I had written about their use of Slate for API docs back in 2014, so it makes sense for me to keep tracking on, but more importantly I think the move reflects the wider evolution of API documentation. If you aren't familiar with Slate, it is a very attractive way to document your APIs, that many API providers and consumers have latched on to. Slate, in contrast to the very utilitarian style of Swagger UI, has certain elements developer prefer--something I can see why, after looking at a lot of API docs.

Dwolla's evolution from their old static API docs to Slate, and then to their current version highlighted two important aspects of the modern API documentation evolution for me. First, the feedback to the Dwolla team revealed that the three column format which Slate used for documentation, made the documentation seem like it was not part of the overall Dwolla experience--it was separate. Which is one unique thing Swagger UI did, is that allowed it to be embedded within any API portal, even though the look was not as attractive as Slate is.

As they evolve overall their portal experience, Dwolla was sure they wanted to keep the code sample viewer, which allows for inline viewing of raw, PHP, Ruby, Python, and JavaScript samples for each API. In rethinking their API docs, the Dwolla team wanted to decouple the three-pane experience, but keep the attractiveness, flowing navigation, and inline language sample experience that Slate delivered--keeping just the best parts of the increasingly ubiquitous API documentation format.

Even though I'm not seeing everything I would like to when it comes to the evolution of API documentation, I am optimistic about what I am seeing, and my conversation with the Dwolla team shows me there is a lot of positive momentum forward in how leading API providers are really thinking about what matters, when it comes to API documentation.

I had a follower tweet out an interesting question about successful patterns for multi-linguarl APIs, which I thought was interesting enough to share as a story, adding to my research, and helping me tune into the topic better.

As the API economy unfolds, and APIs make their way into more countries around the globe, the need to standardize how we internationalize different layers of our API operations is only going to increase--making these types of conversation starters very important.

I see two key building block that I can extract from this conversation. One being Accept-Language for dictating which language your API should be speaking, and two, using a query string lang= to tell your documentation what language it should be speaking. I've added both as API design building blocks, and the documentation reference to my API management building blocks.

I love questions like this, because it puts these topics on my radar, and after writing a post about it, and adding as some common building blocks, the chances I will explore further dramatically increases. This is the side of my research that keeps me getting up and sitting down at the pooter each day.

As 2015 has progressed, I'm seeing containers emerge as part of more stops along the API life-cycle, specifically in deployment and virtualization. A new one that just came across my radar is API PLUG. I haven't played with the containerized API deployment solution yet, but after watching video, and looking through site it seems in line with what I'd expect to see from a next generation, containerized, API deployment solution.

I've added API PLUG to my API deployment research, and I am still considering the best way to include them in other areas of my API research. I'm increasingly finding that modern API management solutions are spanning multiple areas of the API life-cycle, which further encourages me to modularize my research, but also tells me I'm going to need to create some sort of Venn Diagram visualization to help me better understand the reach of emerging API products and services.

Anyways, more to come on API PLUG as I play with, and listen to the stories they tell via their blog, Twitter, and Github accounts (I can only find a Twitter account, but I'm sure they are working on that! ;-).

Tips like this from my readers is why I blog about all my ideas out loud. If I kept my thoughts locked up, this type of discovery would never occur. I am going to play with deploying this version of the Swagger UI for my API stack, to see how versatile it is, and how well it works with my own site template.

I just wanted to put it out there that this new option for Swagger UI exists, in case you were looking for an alternate version of the Swagger UI. I predict this is the beginning of many different iterations on Swagger UI, resulting in one eventually that is themable. ;-)

This is a topic I’ve had an increasing number of conversation with folks about in the last couple months, and a friend of mine Tweeted in response to today, resulting in this lovely rant. This is about two very separate problems, in which the solutions are what I'd consider significantly overlapped. I’m talking about the need to make sure the valuable metadata, as well as underlying resources made available via an API is accessible to search engines, while also making sure the it is all Section 508 compliant, providing critical access to people with disabilities.

In response to my recent post, on "Why The New API Blueprint Sharing Button From Apiary Is So Important”, said:

First, this is another reason why the API Blueprint being more open is important, anyone can now come along and not just build an SEO API documentation solution, they can get access to Apiary.io users who desire such a solution. Ok, that might seem bad for Apiary, but in situations that Apiary is not concerned with, this allows the community to step up and serve the long tail, and if it is something that concerns Apiary, it lights the fire under their ass to consider adding to the road map (sorry Jakub & Z, I know I"m a pain ;-).

Second, it allows the community to step up and serve what I'd consider the critical long tail—like Section 508. In our rush to deliver the latest in technological innovations, we often forget about significant portions of our society who, well, aren’t like us. How many leading apps and platforms that you use are Section 508 compliant? I guarantee almost all API tooling is not—something we need to address now, and is a topic where discussion is currently happening the federal government circles.

I am a big fan of Swagger UI, and Apiary, and what they have done for API design, deployment, management, discovery, and evangelism, but we need to keep working on the next generation of UI, and UX that is easily indexed, and works well with assistive technologies. Ok, at this point the hypermedia folks want to kick my ass--bring it! ;-) Kidding. What I am talking about should happen in conjunction with well designed, hypermedia fueled clients, not instead--both camps should be addressing making sure all clients or SEO and 508 friendly.

I’ll close with a note on the opportunity here. There is huge potential to develop an open source API UI component that can use Swagger and API Blueprint as the core definition, implementing a more SEO and 508 compatible experience, something akin to Slate from Trippit. I’m thinking rather than a pull technology like Swagger UI does with its JS interface pulled from a Swagger definition, and I’m guessing Apiary does a similar pull from API Blueprint docs?? A more of an HTML, CSS push or publish of functional, static API documentation, that uses JavaScript and APIs to operate—just some raw thoughts on how to take next steps, its now up to you.

I guarantee if you made an open source set of tools to support this, you'd get the attention of government at all levels, around the world, something that would open up significant other opportunities.

An API Blueprint renderer that supports multiple themes and outputs static HTML that can be served by any web host. API Blueprint is a Markdown-based document format that lets you write API descriptions and documentation in a simple and straightforward way.

Aglio is significant because it is driven from the machine readable format API Blueprint, and produces static HTML that can be served up anywhere, specifically on Github or Amazon S3 deployed using Jekyll. Additionally it just makes your document simple, easy to follow, and just damn sexy.

I’d love to see a Swagger generated version of Aglio, allowing you to deploy the attractive API documentation from both Swagger or API Blueprint. If more API documentation looked like Aglio, I would be a seriously happy camper.

I was having a Twitter conversation with John Sheehan(@johnsheehan) about the easiest way to generate interactive API documentation this weekend, without getting all tangled up in having to get into the weeds of Swagger UI. I love me some Swagger UI, something I think has transformed how we engage with APIs, but the JavaScript for it can be inaccessible, and difficult to customize--to say the least.

swagger-template, just some HTML files that should theoretically be useful for generating static HTML documentation for a Swagger-compliant API.

swagger-enhance, a little Node utility for grabbing a Swagger API's JSON and "enhancing" it with JSON data from each of its own endpoints (confusingly, "apis", in Swagger parlance).

It makes me happy to see some brainstorming to push the conversation forward. I’m able to deploy Swagger UI pretty quickly to support my APIs, using Github Pages, but when it comes to extending, and transforming the UI, I hit a wall pretty quickly. I've created some custom UI solutions, to help me manage my own infrastructure, driven by Swagger, but nothing that contributes to the larger conversation.

I’d love to see API design, deployment, and integration tools I depend on like Restlet Studio, and Postman provide more support for easy deployment of UI elements, driven by machine readable API formats like Swagger and API Blueprint. Making API documentation more interactive with Swagger UI was an important step forward, but we are ready for the next step in the evolution of API UI generation.

While browsing the Twitter documentation, right before you get to the example request, you get a little dropdown that lets you select from one of your own applications, and generate an oAuth signature without leaving the page.

I am seeing oAuth signature generators emerge in a number of API platforms, but this is the first inline version I’m seeing. I’ve added this to my tentative list of oAuth and security building blocks I recommend, but will give some time before I add. I like to see more than one provider do something before I put it in there, but sometimes when it is just Twitter, that can be enough.

As I look through the API efforts of various providers, I’m always looking for the little things that can make on-boarding, and sustained integration with an API as frictionless as possible. One of the building blocks that I recommend API providers employ in their operations, is a page that explains API rate limits—providing vital information on how API resources are throttled (or not).

An improvement on the standard rate limit building block, can be seen at Twitter. Inline in the Twitter API documentation, there are details about rate limiting for that specific endpoint. This way, as you are learning about each endpoint, you can also understand what limitations are in place. A small addition that could prove critical, for any API provider, especially Twitter, who has some of the most complex rate limiting of any API I know of.

At first glance, something small like including rate limit information within each API endpoint documentation may seem insignificant, but think of it like bobsledding or swimming in the olympics, where the slightest adjustment can reduce friction in just the right place—giving you the competitive advantage you need. Taking a fresh look at the building block(s) Twitter uses around API rate limiting, is expanding my own thoughts on how any API provider can approach their own rate limiting, and represents why I keep an eye on API pioneers like Twitter, even if I don’t always agree with 100% of their decisions around platform operations.

P.S. Did you notice the picture is of the rate limiting information, within the rate limit API endpoint? That will be another story, as part of my expansion of thought in the area of rate limiting.

If you think there is a link I should have listed here feel free to tweet it at me, or submit as a Github issue. Even though I do this full time, I'm still a one person show, and I miss quite a bit, and depend on my network to help me know what is going on.